Akin Set to Stay in Senate Race With Gingrich Support

By Kathleen Hunter -
Sep 25, 2012

Missouri Republican Todd Akin is
moving forward with his go-it-alone U.S. Senate bid, which got a
little less lonely when former Republican presidential candidate
Newt Gingrich raised money for him in suburban St. Louis.

Akin has shown no signs that he’ll give in to Republican
leaders’ urging that he abandon efforts to unseat Senator Claire McCaskill, a first-term Democrat. Today is the last day he could
get a court order to withdraw.

Instead, Akin said yesterday at a campaign event with
Gingrich that he anticipates national Republican groups will
resume their support of his candidacy in the days before the
election.

“I think the money’s going to be coming,” Akin said,
adding that the funds he needs to compete with McCaskill “can
come from a lot of different sources.”

After Akin said in an Aug. 19 television interview that
“legitimate rape” rarely results in pregnancy, the National
Republican Senatorial Committee and Crossroads GPS, a nonprofit
group that former George W. Bush political adviser Karl Rove
helped create, said they wouldn’t spend money on the contest
with Akin as the nominee. Party leaders, including presidential
nominee Mitt Romney, pressured Akin to drop his Senate bid.

‘Kidding Himself’

Akin is “seriously kidding himself” if he thinks the
groups will reverse course, said Jennifer Duffy, who tracks
Senate races for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. Opening
national coffers to Akin would make other Republican candidates
vulnerable to Democratic attempts to tie them to Akin’s remarks,
Duffy said.

“It’s bigger than Akin,” she said. “They can’t go rescue
Akin at the expense of other candidates.” Duffy said McCaskill
may be waiting until after today’s deadline to begin her
sharpest attacks against Akin.

In a possible sign of things to come, McCaskill has begun
airing a television ad citing Akin “in his own words.” It
begins by quoting Akin as having said in March 2011 on C-SPAN
regarding the Social Security system: “I don’t like it.” The
ad concludes with his rape remark last month and asks, “What
will he say next?”

In a fundraising appeal e-mailed to supporters today, Akin
said he’s “not going anywhere” following pressure from “party
bosses and Washington insiders.”

Huckabee, Gingrich

Besides former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, Gingrich is
the only Republican of national stature backing Akin. Gingrich
said yesterday that he was endorsing Akin, 65, because a
Republican victory in Missouri “is a key to winning control of
the Senate” and urged other Republicans to follow his lead.

“This will come down to a very simple question: Do you
want to keep Harry Reid as the majority leader?” Gingrich said
at a campaign event in Kirkwood, a St. Louis suburb. Reid is a
Nevada Democrat. Republicans have been counting on McCaskill’s
seat as one of four they must pick up to win control of the
Senate in the Nov. 6 election.

Gingrich, a former House speaker who also headlined a $500-
a-plate fundraiser for Akin at an Italian restaurant that drew
about 45 people, said other Republicans must “in good
conscience” follow his lead and back Akin.

“If Todd and the people of Missouri prove it’s a close
race, what’s the moral case for not backing the Republican
nominee?” the former speaker said. “My expectation would be
that in the crunch, in October, Governor Romney is going to be
for the entire ticket, and he’s going to be for Todd Akin.”

‘Avalanche of Money’

Gingrich predicted that by mid-October Republicans will
support Akin’s effort and that McCaskill will spend “an
avalanche of money” on the race after today’s deadline for him
to exit the race.

In a Sept. 20 interview, NRSC Chairman John Cornyn of Texas
said the campaign committee wouldn’t provide backing to Akin
under any circumstances.

Donna Hayes, a 53-year-old Wildwood, Missouri, resident who
attended yesterday’s fundraiser, said she was “extremely
frustrated” that national Republican groups were withholding
money from Akin, who is beginning a statewide bus tour today.

“Their pulling the funding from this campaign was more of
a knee-jerk reaction of what would appear popular instead of
sitting down and thinking it out,” Hayes said.

‘Deciding for Us’

“They are deciding for us who should run,” she said.

Following Akin’s comments on rape, McCaskill moved ahead of
the Republican House member in polls although the race has
tightened since then. Earlier in the year, she consistently
trailed Akin and two other potential Republican opponents in
polls.

McCaskill, who has no public events scheduled this week,
yesterday posted a web video accusing Akin of embracing a ban on
congressionally directed spending known as earmarks to try to
win the financial backing of the Senate Conservatives Fund. The
political action committee is affiliated with Senator Jim DeMint, a South Carolina Republican and co-founder of the Senate
Tea Party Caucus.